Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Genworth Financial Inc. is laying off about 80 employees, including 21 workers at the company’s corporate headquarters in Henrico County. The insurance giant said about 35 people also will be laid off from the company’s operation in Lynchburg. The rest are remote workers. Genworth is temporarily suspending the sales of individual long-term care insurance and income Assurance Annuity products through brokerage general agencies. Instead, the company will be distributing these products directly to consumers and through affinity and association programs along with other distribution channels. The company will continue to sell group long-term care insurance through traditional channels, spokeswoman Julie Westermann said. Genworth continues to try fixing its long-term care insurance business, which provides coverage for nursing home and at-home care. The company has sold long-term policies for many years, but the business unit has struggled on and off with losses because coverage costs turned out to be higher than anticipated on older policies and low interest rates hurt investment returns. “Our commitment to helping Americans address the financial challenges of aging remains as strong as ever, and we look forward to bringing new products and services to market that will enable people who need care as they age live...

Franklin Templeton Investments Canada today introduced the Franklin K2 Alternatives which provides investors with access to alternatives investments in a mutual fund format.

Great-West Life subsidiary, Canada Life Reinsurance (Canada Life Re), has announced a long-term reinsurance agreement with VIVAT, a Dutch insurer, to cover $5.5 billion euros of longevity risk. The agreement affects more than 150,000 in-payment and deferred pensioners.

MD Financial Management has proposed changes to the investment objectives of the MDPIM Canadian Bond Pool and the MDPIM Canadian Long Term Bond Pool.

New data monetization business models to expand growth opportunities for solution providers, finds Frost & Sullivan Santa Clara, Calif. (Mar. 11, 2019) – Advancements in data processing tools and adoption of next-generation technologies such as augmented analytics to extract insights from Big Data are expected to drive the Smart Data market toward $31.5 billion by… Read more » The post Augmented Analytics to Play a Vital Role in Converting Big Data to Smart Data appeared first on Insurance-Canada.ca.

Marketing leaders strive for one-to-one personalization, but fall significantly short in most cases Stamford, CT (Mar. 11, 2019) – While most marketing leaders continue to strive for one-to-one personalization, achieving this type of tailored messaging falls short, causing most personalization efforts to fail, according to Gartner, Inc. The price of getting personalization wrong is steep…. Read more » The post Brands Risk Losing 38 Percent of Customers Because of Poor Marketing Personalization Efforts: Gartner Survey appeared first on Insurance-Canada.ca.

It was created with the intention of saving Canadians from becoming over-burdened with their mortgages, but some critics of the Canadian government’s mortgage stress test say it is slamming the door on first-time homebuyers who would otherwise be able to break into the market. In a recent opinion article in the Financial Post, Christopher Alexander, who is executive vice-president and regional director of RE/MAX INTEGRA for Ontario-Atlantic Canada, writes the stress test “is causing more harm than good.” The stress test requires homebuyers that make a down payment of less than 20 percent to qualify for an interest rate that is at or higher than the Bank of Canada’s five-year benchmark rate (5.34 percent at the time of writing). In 2018, it was expanded to homebuyers who put down 20 percent or more; they now need to qualify for a mortgage rate two percent higher than the one offered by their lender (or the Bank of Canada’s rate five-year benchmark rate, whichever one is higher). All of this has been implemented by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) to prevent loose lending and stop Canadians from getting in over their heads when buying a home. But Alexander...

BrokerLink adds family-owned Alberta brokerage Toronto, ON (Mar. 8, 2019) – BrokerLink is pleased to announce the acquisition of personal and commercial insurance provider Nicolet Insurance Ltd., a 40-year-old family brokerage in northern Alberta, effective March 1, 2019. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1980, Nicolet Insurance operates three locations in the… Read more » The post BrokerLink Acquires Nicolet Insurance Ltd. appeared first on Insurance-Canada.ca.

March break is right around the corner, and if you have a trip planned with the kids or maybe even for yourself, you’re probably getting that anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach thinking about the real first leg of your journey – navigating through the airport terminal. Last year, Toronto’s Pearson Airport estimated 130,000 travellers to pass through the airport on the Friday prior to March Break, making it one of the busiest travel days outside of the summer or holiday season. And you can expect all airports across the country to be busier than normal. So if you’re like most people, here are some questions that will likely go through your head the night before your departure. Rest assured with these tips and tricks to breeze through security, stress-free. Airport routine got you anxious? Rest easy with a free short getaway! Sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card or the Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card and earn 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy™ points – enough for four free nights at a Category 2 hotel after you charge $1,500 in purchases to your card in your first three months of Cardmembership! In addition, earn five points for every dollar...

Putnam County could soon offer a more substantial life insurance policy for law enforcement and emergency personnel. “With all the deaths of law enforcement, paramedics and emergency personnel we have been seeing in the news lately, it made me take a hard look at what we do for ours in case of a line of duty death,” said County Mayor Randy Porter. In just the past four months in Tennessee, two police officers and one paramedic have been killed in job-related incidents. A Sullivan County deputy was shot while doing a welfare check at a home in Blountville, a Chattanooga police officer was hit by a car during a traffic stop, and a west Tennessee paramedic died in Nashville when the ambulance he was in hydroplaned and struck a wall. “The devastation a death like this would cause to the employee’s family would be unbelievable,” Porter said. He said the county currently provides a $15,000 life insurance policy on each county employee, but said he would like to increase that. “I am proposing we add a $250,000 life policy to all our full-time sheriff, EMS, fire and EMA department personnel,” he said. “The cost to do this is $19,090 per...